Aloe woke up to an empty stomach, which wasn't surprising as she had only had a few strips of jerky and not much else the previous day. She ate her breakfast, but she was satiated fast.
"I know this isn't healthy, I'm aware I should eat more than this, but I'm not really hungry…"
After being done with her meal, she crawled her way ...
2024-07-21 13:25:46 +0000 UTC View PostWarmth was the first feeling Aloe felt. She wondered if newborn felt the same way in their conception. Then lucidity came back to her.
"Ugh…" The petite woman rolled in the dirt as she groaned. "This has been certainly on the top… something of worst experiences ever, blessed heavens I'm beat."
She put her palms on her head, sligh...
2024-07-20 11:33:57 +0000 UTC View PostDepending on the sharpness of one's senses, the first thing one would detect would be the loud chants and cries. However, he first noticed the sweet smell drowning the whole place. It was a tender and faint smell, but he still recognized it. The pestilence that rotted the mind.
"I'd prefer if you didn't sniff my home." A scraggy voice anno...
2024-07-18 11:34:40 +0000 UTC View PostExhaustion ended up being the issue at hand rather than pain. A trek through the desert was already hard on the body by default, and Aloe's delicate health only exacerbated the problem. Toughness allowed her to quite literally tough out the pain, but the same couldn't be said for the stress her body slowly gathered as she and Fikali traversed th...
2024-07-16 10:54:18 +0000 UTC View PostLulu woke Aloe up even earlier than usual. The maid came stocked up to the scribe's bedchamber with a tray of light food, a readied travel bag, and a desert garb. Even though Aloe hadn't prepared anything for the journey, this was the first time she had been so readied for the trek to the oasis.
In less than half an hour – between toilet...
2024-07-13 12:10:06 +0000 UTC View PostWhen she calmed down from her cursing and pains, Aloe noticed how the Blossomflame looked.
"Hmm…" The naked woman caressed the flower petals. "Am I going crazy, or it really has lost its color? It looks dimmer than before…" She also saw how the stem was slightly dry as if the evolved plant hadn't been watered in a while. "Weird… I gu...
2024-07-11 11:15:20 +0000 UTC View Post"Shouldn't we wait for Miss Lulu?" Nesrine questioned her as the other guards gathered around the palanquin. All males except her in this case.
"There is no need for her, Nesrine." The scribe of commoners stated dryly. "I intend to leave Sadina for a few days on the day after tomorrow, so I would like to stop by my house at least once befo...
2024-07-09 10:39:45 +0000 UTC View PostAloe carried her heart in her fist. Not literally, but certainly not outright metaphorically. Her hands trembled and it wasn't from physical exertion. She pushed her wheelchair alone, Lulu wasn't there to help her as her other duties called for the maid. That was exactly the reason why she was alone in the corridors because Lulu wasn't present t...
2024-07-06 11:20:47 +0000 UTC View PostLife in the palace was slow, slow as it could be. More than actual slowness it was dread of time, ceaseless yet unrelenting. Nothing had happened to offset her plans, Aloe was more than comfortable working as a scribe for Rani, or that was what she constantly told herself. Her body slowly healed, but the constant exercising in the shape of infus...
2024-07-04 12:07:03 +0000 UTC View Post"I'm going to kill her," Mirah stated with such impassive cruelty that it took Aloe a few blinks to process the words.
"Mirah, please relax." The scribe's voice was coarse, partially from having talked this much, but mostly because she felt ill.
"Relax? Aloe!" The housewife stood up and banged the kitchen table. "How do you expect me...
2024-07-02 10:53:54 +0000 UTC View PostDrowning in misery was a thing Aloe could not afford to do. That was the only reason why she stopped moaning and wailing. The only one.
The scribe, with much effort and pain, stood from the armchair and placed herself back in her wheelchair, being careful of her package. She rolled to the office's window. Lulu had opened it for her beforeh...
2024-06-29 10:58:06 +0000 UTC View Post"Are you sure about this, Aloe?" Lulu asked her for the umpteenth time.
"Yes, Lulu. My answer will not change no matter how many times you inquire about it." Yet Aloe's smile didn't falter. "It is just a short trek. I will be fine. And you will be accompanying me, will you not?"
"Yes, of course!" The maid replied with passion. "Butâ€...
2024-06-27 14:52:45 +0000 UTC View PostNaila hated being summoned. It reminded her of how she had less freedom than she thought. That she was always on a leash like some sort of camel. And unlike the commonfolk, she was lucid enough to see the rope tied around her neck. Perhaps she couldn't be considered an emir yet, but her sheer birth made her someone at the level of a sheikh. She ...
2024-06-25 11:04:17 +0000 UTC View PostAloe blinked multiple times then after she gave it half a thought, all the stupefaction left her body. "You know what, that does not surprise me at all."
The scribe dedicated a short gaze to the naked swordswoman, still moving at vertiginous speeds regardless of her sweat-laden body. She's going to dehydrate before she tires out, huh?<...
2024-06-22 11:34:06 +0000 UTC View PostAloe carried her heart in her hand as she moved through the palace's corridors. It was lunchtime, meaning silence reigned everywhere but the dining hall. The silence was good. Not only was the sound of wind crashing against the windows and arches comfortable, but it made it easier to detect people with acuity. The less noise, the better.
S...
2024-06-20 11:08:36 +0000 UTC View PostThe conversation with Rani hadn't gone exactly well, but Aloe knew it could have been worse. Collapse notwithstanding. Lulu had gotten quite the scare from her lapse, but alas, it had been just that. A lapse of health, nothing too serious. The scribe knew she had been pressuring her body, she hadn't yet recovered, but the work had to be done. 2024-06-18 10:47:53 +0000 UTC View Post
"I…" Aloe slightly trembled. A calculated gesture, but it surprised her how natural it came. Maybe it wasn't as faux as she thought it was. "Everything is a bit too… open, do you not think so?"
The scribe soon found out that interacting with Rani wasn't as easy and straightforward as she remembered. Perhaps it was the fact that these l...
2024-06-15 12:36:40 +0000 UTC View PostGetting seeds to evolve was easy, easier than Aloe had expected considering her limited mobility. Lulu didn't mind whatsoever being sent to the bazaar to get things for her, she just shrugged it off saying it was part of her job. That didn't stop Aloe from allowing the woman to keep the change. She had so much money that she didn't know what to ...
2024-06-13 11:12:09 +0000 UTC View PostLulu uncomfortably waited in Aloe's office. Her help had been needed before, but it was now paramount. The scribe of commoner's limited mobility meant she needed help for most activities, even the simplest ones. Especially those ones. Her mistress had allowed her to sit down, sometimes she would remind her of that possibility if she had enough p...
2024-06-11 10:55:44 +0000 UTC View PostNo one dared to move or speak before the emir left the audience hall. Whether it was out of respect or duty.
The first movement was that of Naila Asina. The sultanzade simply strode away from the multitude, unfazed by them. The cultivator gifted a single look at Aloe, whilst the motion was unreadable, the fact alone that she acknowledged h...
2024-06-08 11:56:47 +0000 UTC View PostEven if the great city of Sadina was their destination, Aloe didn't want to get near it. She would just be exchanging masters, she knew it. Her trust in the imperial family had been nonexistent since the beginning, but now it was negative. The faces of Rani and Naila only sent shudders down her spine, her doubt festering like a wound with each s...
2024-06-06 11:31:35 +0000 UTC View PostThe first light awoke all soldiers in the barracks like clockwork. Every working person was used to waking up at first light – that was what they had to do if they wanted to eat – but soldiers were different. There was a sense of snapping, like a puzzle. They had to be awake, that was the end of the question. Whilst Aloe had risen up from he...
2024-06-04 11:08:11 +0000 UTC View PostWater crashed against rock and sand in an eternal struggle. Even from their distance from the city and her prone position, Aloe could see the seafoam giving detail and depth to the sea. Like a picture that was being constantly drawn yet never finished, always striving for more detail, never satisfied. She wondered if one day the heavens would st...
2024-06-01 11:34:24 +0000 UTC View PostHi there,
For health issues, mainly due to stress and nausea, I will not be posting any chapters for the rest of the week. I really thought if I should post one today, but I am afraid I do not have the strength to do so. I do not think this will pause will last more than a week, but if I do not post any chapters next week, do not be surpri...
2024-05-23 12:40:13 +0000 UTC View PostAloe blinked several times in pure bewilderment. Perplexity took over her mind and body. Stupefaction was the name of the game. She opened her mouth, yet no words came from it and she closed it again. To say that she was confused was the understatement of the century.
"M-may… may you repeat your question again?" The scribe stuttered and ...
2024-05-21 10:37:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe city walls were a statement of monumentality. Aloe always felt small, yet at such an imposing sight where everyone was small she found comfort. Equality where there had been none. Even after a few minutes, the shining blue ramparts were still visible.
The talkative soldier had carried her to the sled-palanquin in a rather embarrassing ...
2024-05-18 09:49:55 +0000 UTC View Post"So you will be my entourage?" Aloe stopped her wheelchair in front of the group of soldiers.
It would have been easy to let Farah push her all the way to the entrance of the palace, but she couldn't allow herself to continue seeing the woman after their farewell. It hadn't been easy to push the loaded wheelchair with all her belongings fr...
2024-05-16 20:05:15 +0000 UTC View Post"It could have been worse." Zeeshan groaned as he muttered under his breath, his hands all over Aloe's feet. "Your ankle is twisted, which would normally mean you would not be able to walk for a while. But considering your current state of affairs…" the physician clicked his tongue, "landing in your ankle might as well be a positive outcome. I...
2024-05-14 10:53:22 +0000 UTC View PostThere was only one word to describe Aaliyah-al-Ydaz's eyes: gemstones. Her two eyes shone like the most perfect and beautiful amethysts in the world, yet a totally different word came to Aloe's mind.
Malevolent.
Those weren't the eyes of beauty, but absolute malice.
The sultanah didn't utter a single word, the corridor...
2024-05-11 11:27:23 +0000 UTC View PostFatima made Aloe out soon after that. Apparently, the scribe had taken almost an hour to learn regeneration between the tale and the visualization. And that was without taking into account lunchtime and the other conversation they had. The princess pushed her out of the room under the pretense of needing to fulfill her imperial duties, even if A...
2024-05-09 09:23:18 +0000 UTC View Post